FON.com’s new precious has landed via UPS at my office today. I paid a fair €46.95 EUR for their small Fonera router and Fontenna antenna, the latter on discount. The package took exactly two weeks to deliver.
I wrote quite a lot about the Fonera so there’s no real news there. But the Fontenna I did not yet test so keep abreast!

Till I get my own oppinion (read other good reviews at ElFonBlog’s for example) will share some unboxing pics below.

Update 2: second one just arrived.
Update 1: the thing comes with two double-adhesive 3M pads (I’d call 3M best quality) to help fasten it on windows. It doesn’t have a smart mechanism to allow aiming and pointing in various directions, but it assumes you’d have a stiff “reach neighbor across the street, period” usage. Say you’re lucky to fit in this description, don’t jump like crazy about those pads. My Fontenna falls off the window every other morning. Guaranteed alarm clock! The sun takes care those pads forget they have to be sticky. ;)
Mine now rests on the floor, pathethic and helpless, till I figgure out a way to fasten it – most likely to look for some suction cups. (yeah, I know, some already pointed out they would have loved those for their Foneras, let alone the antenna)

Never mind the pads and suction cups. I live on a busy street with tall 10story blocks of flats on its sides. I’m not into feeding my poor neighbors (none have connected to my WiFi in two days anyway, even by pointing directly at the block across the street) but maybe into pointing the antenna down the boulevard to reach as far as my eyes can see. I can’t do that by two reasons. The darn thing had to be cheap so it does not provide an articulation mechanism of any sort. Hey Fon, usually you get a gain antenna to aim the WiFi signal along a busy street, not across it! Doh!
I mounted many a outdoor WiFi antennas over the years and I can tell you it’s not as easy as it looks from afar. It’s a harsh environment and a simple plastic arm might not really do it. Stainless steel would be a good idea! But that’s expensive.
The missing swinging arm is a deal breaker! Of course I could fool around and go to the closest contruction store to get some pipes and fittings, bricolage my own mini-pole. But I want to have that out of the box for the Euro 17ish + shipping. I’d also have to drill holes to pass the cable and antenna out, something I’m not so convinced I want to do. Bummer!

Sure, many would argue on how far the antenna beams it WiFi blessing. I won’t comment on that yet. Frankly, don’t even care. I know that an average laptop doesn’t have a good range of its own so, regardless of the size of the transmitter, it will only pick up signal in a range of around 100meters (300feet).
Luckily, directional antennas are a blessing in terms of avoiding interference with nearby networks and designating a coverage area. Your Fontenna will not be able to beam your WiFi to the nearest city, but it sure might help focus it on a spot a few meters away than your stock 2dbi antenna would. The difference would be that the stock antenna had omnidirectional RF pattern, scattering your signal everywhere, whereas your Fontenna would focus it in a narrow, directional beam. Of course that increases your range by a few meters!
Not expecting miracles is the rational thing to do. Enjoy your nifty toy and play with it! Explore and experiment!
Or just buy two and, using APs or other routers than the Foneras, make a cool link (using two Fontennas aimed correctly at each other you might just reach a Kilometer or two!) with your friend to enjoy better speeds for gaming, file and internet sharing in your personal high speed wireless LAN! That’s what I would do! :)

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